Feminism is no longer a dirty word

By Carol Costello

Updated 5:01 PM ET, Wed May 28, 2014

Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Writer and activist Gloria Steinem speaks in November during an Equality Now event in Los Angeles. Steinem helped usher in the women's liberation movement during the 1960s and 1970s, and she remains one of its most outspoken and visible symbols.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – A portrait of Steinem circa 1970. In 1971, she co-founded Ms. magazine, the first magazine to be created and operated entirely by women.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem, left, helps hold up an image of the My Lai Massacre during a 1970 march down New York's Fifth Avenue.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem is featured as "The New Woman" on the cover of Newsweek in 1971. She was increasingly seen as the spokeswoman of the women's movement, although the headline to the story inside -- " A Liberated Woman Despite Beauty, Chic and Success" -- showed there was still a long way to go.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem speaks at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami, where she nominated Frances "Sissy" Farenthold for vice president. Steinem co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus, which works to increase the number of women in the political field.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem, left, and Jill Ruckelshaus listen to a question during their appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" in Washington in 1972.

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem walks with writer Maya Angelou on their way to the March on Washington on August 27, 1983. The event commemorated the 20th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

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Photos: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem17 photos

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem, right, poses with actress Kirstie Alley at the Ms. magazine offices in 1984. Alley played Steinem in "A Bunny's Tale," a 1985 TV movie based on Steinem's experience going undercover to work as a Playboy bunny in 1963. After her undercover work, Steinem wrote an expose about the poor pay and working conditions.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – A police officer arrests Steinem in 1984 during an anti-apartheid protest outside the South African Embassy in Washington.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem applauds first lady Hillary Clinton at Clinton's address to the New York Women's Agenda in 1995.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem poses with Gloria Feldt, former president of Planned Parenthood, at a reception in 1999. The event celebrated the relaunch of Ms. magazine by Liberty Media for Women.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem holds up a copy of her book "Enslaved" as she speaks during a 2007 protest on the steps of the state Supreme Court in Albany, New York.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Librarian of Congress James Billington awards Steinem a Living Legend medal during the Library of Congress' 200th birthday party in 2011.

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Feminist icon Gloria Steinem – Steinem is presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at the White House in November. It is the nation's highest civilian honor.

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Story highlights

The face of feminism, Gloria Steinem, turns 80 on Tuesday

Carol Costello says feminism is popular with young women, who reject stereotypes

Rush Limbaugh railed against Sandra Fluke, but his jibes cut little weight with many, she says

Young women see the value in speaking out against gender bias, she says

Happy birthday, Gloria Steinem!

The "Face of Feminism" turns 80 Tuesday, and guess what? Feminism seems to be turning the corner -- again. Many young women are now embracing the term and rejecting the notion that feminists are hairy, ugly, man-hating, angry women.

And lest critics point to Beyonce's overt sexuality as evidence of her hypocrisy, this year Queen Bey took it a step further and wrote an essay for "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink." In it, Beyonce Knowles-Carter (note the hyphenated name!) proclaimed that "gender equality is a myth!" She went on to write, "the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change."

Carol Costello

A few years ago, Emma Watson told People magazine of her "Harry Potter" character, "Hermione's not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that's bad." Watson added she's a lot like Hermione: "I'm a bit of a feminist. I'm very competitive and challenging."

That's not to say all young women feel the same. Or certain older men.

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Photos: Feminists of the future 10 photos

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Young feminists – The names Betty, Gloria and Shirley probably come to mind when most think of feminists, but there's a whole group of young women -- and men -- who are working toward equality. Here is a short list -- who would you add? Tweet us @CNNLiving with #fem2.

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani student and education activist, who gained international attention after she was shot in 2012 by Taliban gunmen. "I want to become a prime minister of Pakistan," she said, saying it could make her "the doctor of the whole country."

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Young feminists – Journalist Gloria Steinem poses with Kierra Johnson at the Ms. Foundation's Women of Vision 2013 Gala earlier this year. Johnson, the executive director of Choice USA, an abortion rights organization, has worked to mobilize youth around reproductive justice.

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Young feminists – There's been no shortage of ink written on Tavi Gevinson, the wunderkind founder and editor-in-chief of the online magazine, Rookie. In her 2012 TEDtalk on feminism, she spoke about women in media: "What makes a strong female character is a character who has weaknesses, who has flaws, who is maybe not immediately likable, but eventually relatable."

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Young feminists – Samhita Mukhopadhyay is a feminist writer, speaker and digital strategist. As the former executive editor of Feministing.com, she also wrote "Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life." Now, she works as a senior strategist at Purpose developing digital campaigns for girls and women.

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Young feminists – Sammi Siegel, Emma Axelrod and Elena Tsemberis are three New Jersey teens who petitioned to get a female moderator for the 2012 presidential debate. CNN's Candy Crowley was named a moderator for the second debate, in which wage parity became an issue.

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Young feminists – Gaby Pacheco, an immigrant rights leader and director of the Bridge Project, left, was accompanied by Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, when Pacheco testified before Congress about the DREAM Act.

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Young feminists – Jamia Wilson is the executive director of YTH -- Youth Tech Health -- an organization that advances youth health and wellness through technology. She's been named one of faces of the future of feminism and was part of a co-founding leadership committee of SPARK Movement.

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Young feminists – Shelby Knox was featured in a documentary that chronicled her teenage activism for comprehensive sex education and gay rights in her Southern Baptist community. She has been an activist for 10 years and works at Change.org on campaigns for gender justice.

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Young feminists – Sunny Clifford is advocate for reproductive health and justice and petitioned for Native American women's access to emergency contraception. She was featured in the documentary "Young Lakota."

In 2012, Limbaugh took on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. She testified before Congress about the need for her Jesuit university to provide contraception insurance coverage for female students.

She even admitted to being an "American woman who uses contraceptives." Oh, my!

Limbaugh promptly labeled her a "feminazi" and a "slut."

Or to quote the big man himself, "So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

It so evokes Bobby Riggs, right? A pro tennis player who, on September 20, 1973, challenged Billie Jean King to a tennis match because "the best way to handle women is to keep them barefoot and pregnant."

Happy 80th, Gloria Steinem

Courtney Martin, who co-edited Feministing.com -- a widely read and influential feminist blog -- and author of "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters," says many young women have been afraid of the word "feminist" because it's been the target of a powerful smear campaign for decades. But, thanks largely to the Internet, smears like Limbaugh's are losing their power.

At Feministing.com, she says, "we get mail from teenaged girls in the middle of Iowa who say ... 'I stumbled on your site and realized feminism isn't about man-hating and Birkenstocks.' " It's actually "kind of cool and counter-cultural."

Wow. Really? Martin says yes. Because today's feminist movement realized it had to embrace aesthetics. Beauty and fun and relationships matter, too. So does the cool factor. Jon Stewart, anyone? Stewart has a cultural agenda, he's cool, and young people follow him in droves.

Jessica Valenti, an author sometimes described as a feminist evangelist, says that when she delivered talks on feminism on college campuses a few years ago, one or two hands went up when she asked who considered themselves a feminist. Today, she says, "now almost all of them do."

And, says Martin, it's not just because of "cool" or contraception or abortion rights. It's because of a more evolved definition of feminism.

"Feminism means a fight for others," Martin said. It's about living a "feminist life." That means equality for everyone: women, children and, yes, men. That includes advocating on issues like immigration, human trafficking and so much more.

Perhaps Lena Chen, an activist and media commentator for Salon, Glamour and her own blog, put it best. "In my lifetime feminism has evolved far beyond the binary identity politics of women vs. men," she wrote in an e-mail. "To me, feminism is one part of a larger global movement for liberation. Gender norms dictating how you ought to behave, dress, marry, or work are oppressive regardless of what body you inhabit or how you identify yourself."

She says social media have helped many young activists in her generation speak with powerful voices.

They no longer need one "figurehead" in "order to create change."

They just need each other.

So, happy birthday, Gloria. On your 80th birthday, feminism has indeed turned a corner. We'll have to see how far it has gone when you turn 90. Or 100.